Ok! So let's go over the parts of the guitar.
We are going to work from this direction here.
First we've got the headstock.
You will see headstocks in two different flavors really.
This is a Gibson Les Paul headstock it has three tuners on one side and three tuners on the other side.
Some Fender guitars, Ibanez guitars most of them are going to have six tuning pegs up here.
So the headstock houses the tuning pegs and is where you connect the strings on this side.
Next we've got the nut.
The nut is what holds the strings in place and makes them spaced evenly as you are playing and bending and for any chords.
Some of you may have an old dusty guitar laying around
The nut is what holds the strings in place and makes them spaced evenly as you are playing and bending and for any chords.
Some of you may have an old dusty guitar laying around
and it is really important when you start playing to make sure that this is set up correctly.
Both the nut and the bridge which we will talk about in a second are essential to making the guitar set up well
so you can play well from the very beginning.
After the nut you've got the fret board.
The fret board of course and all of this stuff is included on the neck.
The fret board is where you actually make the sound where you actually make the notes.
The little metal dividers actually in between each metal divider is a fret.
That is a very large misconception when you start playing the guitar.
When your teacher might say something like play on the first fret and you actually put your finger on the metal thing.
You don't want to do that.
When you're playing a note you're going to be playing and they say first fret
You don't want to do that.
When you're playing a note you're going to be playing and they say first fret
you're going to be between the nut and the first metal divider.
Or if you are going to be playing a note on the second fret it's going to be between the first metal thing and the second metal thing.
If that makes sense.
Strings. There are a couple different ways to refer to the strings which we are going to talk about in a little bit.
For now this high string here we are going to refer to as the first string.
The lowest string in sound is going to be referred to as the sixth string.
That leaves us with one two three four five six.
Most of you probably know that this is called the body so that is pretty self explanatory.
It is really what is on the body that counts.
Really the backbone of where the guitar is all connected is back here in the bridge.
That is where your strings connect to back here.
This guitar is kind of cool because the strings don't need to go through the body.
That is where your strings connect to back here.
This guitar is kind of cool because the strings don't need to go through the body.
The strings just connect back here to the bridge.
We will have a lesson in the future about changing strings on different types of guitars so we will get to that later.
For right now the bridge is what holds the string in place back here.
Next we have got the pickups.
The pickups are going to be using magnetic energy to translate vibrations into notes.
There is a lot of different pickup configurations depending on what guitar you play.
This one has two pickups here followed by a pickup selector here
and this pickup selector is basically going to determine which one of these are on or it is going to be able to blend the two.
So if I've got this pickup selector put all the way down to the treble section it's going to be only using this pickup.
If I've got the pickup selector all the way up to the rhythm it's going to be only using this pickup.
This is called the neck pickup and this is called the bridge pickup.
If I have this pickup selector directly in the middle it's going to be using both.this pickup.
This is called the neck pickup and this is called the bridge pickup.
If I have this pickup selector directly in the middle it's going to be using both.
Each one gives you a slightly different sound.
I am going to go ahead and just play a chord and give you a little bit of a demonstration.
Notice this sound is much brighter than this sound and different still than the middle blended sound.
The last section that we are going to be covering here are the volume and tone nobs.
These front nobs here are the volume nobs.
Each pickup has there own volume nob and again things are going to be different on your guitar.
Most guitars have at least one volume nob and at least one tone nob.
This will still be applicable even if you are not playing a Gibson Les Paul.
So if I am down here on the treble setting
I can adjust the volume on just this pickup.
and I can adjust the volume here on my neck pickup.
I can adjust the volume on just this pickup.
and I can adjust the volume here on my neck pickup.
Also each one of these pickups have there own tone nob.
Basically what the tone nob is going to do is roll off the high end sound of your strings.
The last section here on the body is the volume and tone nobs.
The volume nobs are going to adjust on this guitar specifically each one of these individual pickup volumes.
The tone nobs are going to shape the sound a little bit.
They will bring your high sounds up a little bit and your low sounds down.
I encourage you to play around with these on your own guitar
when you are plugged into an amp and figure out how those sound on your particular setup.